Star Wars: Episode X - The Rescue Mission

Chapter Seventeen: Battle

Back at the command center, Rey's signal registered. Poe pressed a button on the holo display and images of Han and Chewbacca appeared. "Han, Chewbacca, the Storm is at Utapau," Poe announced. "Your battle group is closest, so I'm assigning you to take the Storm. I'm sending you the information we have on file from our intelligence network about the First Order's naval forces there. Use it to form a plan as quickly as you can."

"Will do, General," Han replied as Chewie verbalized his assent.

On the command cruiser Sunrise, Poe's hologram winked out as Han and Chewie signed off. "All right, old buddy," Han told Chewie. "Let's finish what Ben and Rey started."

After scanning the information from Poe, he and Chewie quickly consulted with the rest of the commanders in his battle group. After formulating a strategy, Han opened up a channel to his entire fleet. "Attention, Battle Group Alpha! All craft, prepare for departure. The destination is Utapau. The target is the Star Destroyer Storm and its escort craft. This war, in one form or another, has been going on nearly my entire life. I'm ready to end it for good! If you are too, get ready, because our part starts now. Remember General Leia. Remember her courage, her heart, her selflessness, and her tenacity, and fight for what she fought for—life and liberty. Jump to hyperspace on my mark!"

Inspired by General Solo's speech, Finn sat down with Rose in the operations room set aside for the Messengers, as the hacking teams within each strike force were now called. "Rey won't let us down," Finn stated confidently, looking at Rose. "And if Ren really is on our side now—"

"Ben," Rose corrected him. "He's not Kylo Ren anymore. Love saved him. Like I told you on Crait when I said we'd win by saving what we loved."

"And you saved me," Finn said. "And Luke saved us." Rose nodded and put her hand lightly on Finn's arm.

He didn't seem to notice, though, because he was getting riled again. "How could she love him? It doesn't make any sense! She tried to explain it to me once, but I still don't get it! He was our enemy, a murderer! He almost killed us both on Starkiller Base!"

"Think about General Leia. She loved him. It didn't mean she loved his choices. In fact, quite the opposite."

"She was his mother. Not the same."

"Isn't it? Think about it—there are different kinds of love. For example, the love you have for your family is different from the love you have for your friends, and both are different from romantic love. But the core values of all are the same. For Rey, it started with compassion and a desire to save him—the same as General Leia felt for him.

"Then, she told me, through their bond she was able to learn a lot more about him, his feelings, his experiences, and how he'd been manipulated, abused, and lied to by Dark Side forces all his life. She also discovered he had feelings for her, but until he rejected the Dark Side, he didn't know how to love, because he'd embraced all sorts of things—selfishness, lust for power, revenge, aggression, unforgiveness—that are the opposite of love.

"Rey didn't fall in love with Kylo Ren, she fell in love with Ben Solo—the man he had been, and the man she knew he could be again if he chose. When he did become Ben again, he proved her right by rushing to her side and saving her—and by extension the galaxy—from accepting the devil's bargain of killing Palpatine and being possessed by him in order to save the Resistance. Then he ultimately gave the rest of his life force to save her from dying, and there's no greater love than to give up your life for another."

"Did Rey tell you all that?"

"Mostly; the rest I guessed. With Rey having no family of her own, and mine all gone, we've grown to be a lot like sisters."